Site Poll 68: What do you want to see most in Halo 6?

[Ranger Intel]

  

 

 

Hi everyone, Spartan here with site poll #68.

 

 

In the last poll I asked what your signature UNSC weapon was, and being a tough question, I believe it's safe to say the Railgun came out on top. Many others got shoutouts, such as the shotgun ("because shotguns") and the devastating Rocket Launcher, but the common fact was the Railgun. Being a more advanced weapon, developed after the Human-Covenant War, it's not surprising it takes the lead hear. Question is, could you handle its recoil? Click here to view the last poll, #67.

 

 

 

What do you want to see most in Halo 6?

 

 

Some people claim disappointment with Halos 4 and 5, I disagree. There were indeed disappointments, but nothing too major. What I think people really want is more of the classic, Bungie-era gameplay, otherwise the story seems intact and just fine. Whether it's a specific gameplay feature, or a story-element, what matters most now is working on making Halo 6 something we'll all love passionately (and still fixing MCC multiplayer).

 

For me, the most important thing is the Covenant species' depiction. I once made a thread on how all races should be shown in-game. With more time being spent on Halo 6, this is certainly possible. For others, it may be the multiplayer they want restored to its more 'original' state, for example by removing sprint and mobility. Something very important would be getting rid of REQ cards, because they have seen huge backlash within the Halo community, especially with a 343 Industries staff member claiming people loved them.

 

For each of you, what do you want to see most in Halo 6? Be it a new feature, or the retirement of an existing one, post your ideas down below.

 

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts,

Spartan out.   

Edited March 25, 2018 by UNSC Spartan-II

[superintendent]

A change in the art style would be appreciated by me. After Halo Reach the art style has changed rather dramatically. That's to be expected since the advancement of technology allows for it. But for me Spartans just don't look human anymore. And that's something I really miss. Some of the simpler armour designs that we're gritty were my favorite. Now it seems that they have to add random shapes just to fit the asthetic of the rest of the game, even if it seems impractical. Also why is everything so darn shiny now?

 

Maybe I'm just not the target audience anymore?also I don't really expect this to change but it's what I'd like.

[I_Make_Big_Boom]

A change in the art style would be appreciated by me. After Halo Reach the art style has changed rather dramatically. That's to be expected since the advancement of technology allows for it. But for me Spartans just don't look human anymore. And that's something I really miss. Some of the simpler armour designs that we're gritty were my favorite. Now it seems that they have to add random shapes just to fit the asthetic of the rest of the game, even if it seems impractical. Also why is everything so darn shiny now?

 

Maybe I'm just not the target audience anymore?also I don't really expect this to change but it's what I'd like.

 

I agree, the style is far too detailed for what's necessary. However, it's Halo, Microsoft will use it as their graphics posterboy for eons regardless of sales. Still, the pipe dream would be a simpler style where my eyes don't bleed every time I look at every freaking object. Like you said as well, it feels like they don't know what to do with negative space. Since everything is hyper-detailed, any blank area would stand out like a sore thumb.

 

Going against what would seem logical for Halo, I would prefer Halo 6 take a step back, and decrease the scale, similar to Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. If they can't do that for Halo 6 then they should make a spinoff similar to ODST, or Reach: anything to get us away from the galactic, comic book bullcrap they've been trying to spoonfeed us since Halo 4, which they completely derailed in 5. There's freaking nearly 20 years of lore they could use for this, and literally no-one's going to care if they don't do Halo 6. Any dead air between Halo 5 and 6 is good since that's more time for everyone to settle down, and actually be more open to a story continuing from 5.

[RedStarRocket91]

I think other replies will cover the bases of art style, balance, and story, so I won't really go into detail on those.

 

Instead, I'm going to start by suggesting something controversial: I'd actually really like to see Armour Abilities and custom loadouts return. Perhaps not so much for competitive play, but definitely as something for campaign, firefight, and as an option in custom games. I think the inclusion of AAs opens up a lot of creative potential for custom maps and gametypes (especially if you look back at some of the ways they were used in Reach), and if done right they can add a lot of depth to PvE game modes, too. Custom loadouts are slightly different (as I firmly believe they provide fairer gameplay in competitive games than fixed weapon spawns), but still really useful for customs and PvE.

 

But mostly? I want to see enemy diversity. Frankly, right now I'm really worried about what Halo 6 is going to look like in terms of the enemy sandbox. The Prometheans are, put simply, not fun to fight in Halo 5. It's not just that they're all bullet sponges with homing weapons (and I'll get to that in a moment) and resistance to headshots, it's that they have almost nothing in the way of enemy variety. Soldiers, Crawlers, Sniper Crawlers which look like regular Crawlers to a glance, rarely Watchers, a couple of type of Knight, and the Phaeton simply are not enough to carry a whole campaign. That's seven enemy types, if we include their vehicle. I was sick of fighting them before we'd left Meridian in Halo 5. If that's all we can hope for in Halo 6, then it's going to be incredibly dull. So whatever happens, the Prometheans need a much, much bigger roster, and ideally one which is more about skilled play as with the redesigned Knights than just bullet sponging and frustration as with Soldiers.

 

For contrast, let's look at Reach. In Reach, you could expect to fight Grunts (in Plasma Pistol, Needler, and Fuel Rod flavours), Shield Jackals, Jackal Snipers, Skirmishers, Drones, Elites (in Plasma Repeater, Concussion Rifle, Needle Rifle, Fuel Rod, and Energy Sword flavours, with optional toppings of jetpacks and stealth cloaks!), shooty Brutes, hammer Brutes, Hunters, Engineers, Ghosts, Wraiths, and Banshees. Even if we condense some of those into similar 'roles' (Pistol/Needle Grunts, Repeater/Concussion/Needle Elites), that's still fifteen types of enemy infantry - over twice the Promethean roster before we even include their vehicles and discounting dropships. Better, they all looked visually distinct and acted in very different ways. And with the end of the Covenant, Halo 6 is losing the last of what was already a very stripped-down alien roster, further weakening its variety.

 

Now to be clear: I don't want the Covenant to come back again. We've been there, fought them and beaten them for almost twenty years, they're finished. Bringing them back yet again, however it's justified, is just uninspired and unimaginative design. However, something like the Banished would make a great spiritual successor, while potentially even bringing back some of the fantastic diversity of Halo 3's vehicle roster. For the same reasons I'd love to see the Flood return, as we're yet to see them in the post-trilogy games and fighting them is very different to the other factions. Heck, let's have something completely new: surely there have to be some people who believe in Cortana's vision, or who've been brainwashed? Enemy marines and militia with ARs and BRs, brainwashed conscripts sprinting around with Shotguns, Spartan-Vs in SPI armour with silenced weaponry to ambush unwary players, whatever. We could have easily the biggest and best sandbox of any Halo game to date, with a ton of replayability through firefight - or we could have the same tired selection of six Prometheans and yet another barebones splinter of the Covenant, yet again.

 

Lastly: if there's one thing I don't want to see in Halo 6, it's homing weapons. Seriously, I don't know what they were thinking when they did this. Half the fun of Halo has always come from plasma strafing: it's not just that it looks cool, feels cool, and is a genuinely effective tactic for reducing incoming DPS, it's also vital for keeping the action moving, ensuring that the player feels like they're progressing, and letting them move around the map aggressively. Without that, Halo 5 ended up basically just being a cover shooter, where players were basically stuck in cover the whole time trading fire at medium range and sitting waiting for shields to recharge rather than actively storming enemy positions, because moving in the open is basically a death sentence on Legendary and only a little better on Heroic due to enemy accuracy. It's part of what contributes to the Prometheans feeling so stale and exhausting to fight, and really ruins the whole feel of being a supersoldier.

 

Great question, as usual!

[Buns]

I think other replies will cover the bases of art style, balance, and story, so I won't really go into detail on those.

 

Instead, I'm going to start by suggesting something controversial: I'd actually really like to see Armour Abilities and custom loadouts return. Perhaps not so much for competitive play, but definitely as something for campaign, firefight, and as an option in custom games. 

I would love if loadouts or armor abilities really made each class unique down to player stats. Maybe its just my recent affinity for Overwatch and team based shooters but man would I adore the ability to have TF2 in Halo custom games.